Main:Larisa Iordache
Larisa Iordache (born June 19, 1996, in Bucharest, Romania) is an artistic gymnast. She's the 2012 and 2014 European Champion on floor exercise, the 2013 European Champion on balance beam and 2013 Romanian National Champion. She won four medals at the 2010 European Championships (one gold, two silver, and one bronze) and six medals at the 2011 European Youth Olympic Festival (three gold and three silver). She is also a 2013 World bronze medalist in floor exercise and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist with the team. Her best events are balance beam and floor exercise. Junior Gymnastics Career Iordache started to train for gymnastics at CSS Dinamo Club in Bucharest at the age of four and a half. In 2008 she became a member of the national junior team were she trained with coaches Ramona Micu, Adela Popa, Cristian Moldovan and Lacramioara Moldovan. She had a successful gymnast career medaling at various international competitions. 2009-2010 In 2009 she won the prestigious Top Gym Trophy. At the same competition she won gold on beam, bronze with the team, and placed seventh in the uneven bars final. The series of successes continued at the 2010 Romanian International Championships where her scores on beam and on floor were the highest of all the gymnasts, including the senior ones. Later that year she was a member of the junior team at the 2010 European Championships. Here she tied for gold on floor with Anastasia Grishina, won silver on beam and with the team, and bronze all around, and placed fourth on vault. 2011 In 2011 she won several all around titles at international competitions such as the Gym-Festival of Trnava (59.500) and a dual meet against Great Britain (58.300), and she scored 58.800 to lead the Alliance Dijon Gym 21 club to first place at the French championships. The highlight of the year was the win of six medals at the 2011 European Youth Olympic Festival among which three gold medals (all around, beam, and floor) and three silver medals (team, uneven bars, and vault). Senior Career 2012 Iordache competed at the 2012 American Cup in New York on March 3rd, her first international meet as a senior gymnast. She placed third, ahead of her compatriot Diana Chelaru, who placed fifth. Iordache also competed at the Doha World Cup, where she placed fifth on uneven bars behind compatriot, Diana Bulimar. In May, Iordache was named to the Romanian team for the European Championships. She posted the highest score on uneven bars for her team. The Romanians won the gold medal. Individually, Iordache won silver on balance beam and gold on floor exercise. On July 7th, Iordache was named to the Romanian team for the Olympics. That same weekend, Iordache competed at the Romanian International Friendly. She won a gold medal with the team and won the all-around ahead of compatriot Sandra Izbasa. Prior to qualifications, Iordache had been diagnosed with an inflammatory condition of the foot. It was rumored she would not compete the all-around because of it, but she stated she would. During qualifications, Iordache did in fact compete the all-around. She qualified to the all-around in eighth place. During the team final, Iordache competed on every event except floor exercise. Her performances helped Romania win the bronze medal behind the United States and Russia. Originally, Diana Bulimar was meant to participate in the balance beam event final, but was pulled out and replaced with Iordache. She scored a 14.200 and finished sixth. Iordache was scheduled to compete at the Stuttgart World Cup in late November and the Glasgow World Cup in December, but pulled out due to injury. 2013 Iordache was scheduled to compete at four World Cup meets: the American Cup, La Roche-sur-Yon World Cup, Cottbus World Cup (with teammate Diana Bulimar), and Doha World Cup. However, Iordache withdrew from the first three competitions. In Doha, she won gold on balance beam, and silver on floor exercise and vault (with a double twisting Yurchenko and full twisting Tsukahara). At the end of March, she was named to the Romanian team for the European Championships. Going into the European Championships, Iordache was one of the favorites for the all-around title, and even more so after qualifying first into the final. However, she placed second in the final to Russia's Aliya Mustafina. She won another silver in the vault final, tied with Netherlands' Noël Van Klaveren, a gold on balance beam, and silver on floor exercise. That summer, she was named to the Romanian's nominative team for the World Championships, which became official in the fall. In June, Iordache won gold on both balance beam and floor exercise (tied with her teammate Bulimar) at the Anadia World Cup in Portugal. She underwent brief treatment for a slight injury in August and missed a friendly meet in the Netherlands as a result, but recovered in time for the Romanian Nationals. There, Iordache won gold in the all-around and on bars and beam, and silver on floor and with her team. In qualifications at the World Championships, Iordache competed in the fourth subdivision. She qualified fourth to the all-around, first to the balance beam final, and third to the floor exercise final (tied with Italy's Vanessa Ferrari). In the all-around, she surprisingly fell on balance beam and finished fourth. In the balance beam final, she performed seventh, but fell on her tucked full and scored 13.933. She finished seventh. In the floor final, she competed fourth. She hit a very clean routine to score a 14.600. She won bronze behind USA's Simone Biles and Italy's Vanessa Ferrari. Following the World Championships, Iordache had a packed schedule. She was selected to compete at the Arthur Gander Memorial in late October, the Swiss Cup in early November, the Massilia Cup in mid-November, the Stuttgart World Cup in late November, and the Glasgow World Cup in December.StuttgartGlasgow She won the all-around at the Gander Memorial and the Swiss Cup. In the Master Team division at the Massilia, the Romanian team won the all-around, vault, beam, and floor, and placed sixth on bars. Individually, Iordache won the all-around, vault, beam, and floor. She qualified to the Top Massilia, and won gold on beam and floor and silver on vault. In Stuttgart, she had a fall on bars but performed well on the other pieces, especially on balance beam. After the balance beam rotation, her coaches filed an inquiry about her score, and it was raised four tenths. Iordache won the silver medal, 0.034 behind the gold medalist, USA's Elizabeth Price. In Glasgow, she had a fall on balance beam, but still managed to narrowly win the title over Price by almost six tenths. 2014 In January, she was announced as a competitor for the American Cup in early March,American Cup but withdrew with an injury in late February.AmCup withdrawal She competed at the Doha World Cup in late March, winning gold in all the events she'd qualified for: vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. In April, she competed at a friendly meet against gymnasts from Belgium and France, winning team and all-around gold medals. She was selected to the Romanian team for the European Championships in May. She won team and floor exercise gold, balance beam silver, vault bronze, and placed sixth on uneven bars. Medal Count Floor Music 2012 (before Olympics) - "Tamacun" by Rodrigo y Gabriela 2012-2013 - "Guitarria" by Benise 2013-2014 - "Jaiya Ho" by Sukhwinder Singh Trivia *Iordache's nickname "Pikachu" came from the yellow leotard she wore at the 2012 European Championships that someone said it reminded them of the character Pikachu from the anime series Pokémon. Iordache later wore the same leotard in the balance beam event final at the Olympics and during the all-around event at the 2013 European Championships. References